"I am the daughter of a king who is not moved by the world. For my God is with me and goes before me. I do not fear because I am His."

8.13.2012

The parents came to visit

We were thrilled to have Robert's parents visit us on their way home from spending the summer in Taiwan. We eagerly awaited their arrival to Gimcheon and then headed up to Seoul to collect them. They were to arrive on Thursday, but due to the typhoon that was in the area, they could not fly out until Friday. We were sad to lose a day but did our best to enjoy Seoul (mainly Myeongdong) together.

Whenever we go to Seoul, we always try to eat foods that we aren't able to get in Gimcheon.

That took us to Subway, Starbucks, and Din Tai Fung.

Christmas in August!!!

Mama's birthday was the end of July, so we were so excited to get to celebrate with her! We invited some of our closest "Seoul friends" to help celebrate and ate a lovely dinner at Fisher's Market.

After dinner we headed to Coffine Guranaru for coffee and birthday cake.

(Mama and Dad wanted to see all our old spots, and this is where

we did a large portion of our master's degree to date)

We were happy to introduce them to Pastor Oliver :)

Following a short tour of our old neighborhood, we met up with Jay for lunch at a

delicious duck restaurant.

It was wonderful having our parents with us over a Sunday so that they could worship with us at our church. The president had them give a greeting to the church and was so happy to have them here.

Our favorite Cal-guk-su restaurant owner :)

The University went out of their way to provide an amazing tour of several of the

departments on campus.

It was such an amazing experience for us all :)

English Department

Missions Department

Optometry Department

Dentistry Department

Indigenous Foods Department

After our tour, the president treated us to a traditional Korean feast at the foot of Jikjisa. The amount of food was absolutely unbelievable! It was such a neat experience.

Do you think we had enough food? This was AFTER the meal!

We took one day to head to Lucky Penny for lunch. This is one of our favorite Gimcheon hang outs and the owner had been a life saver. Along with owning and operating this American style restaurant (He lived in San Francisco for 9 years), he also is a photographer. Before our trip to South Africa, we modeled for one of his photography exhibits this summer. He now has the prints up in his restaurant. The theme of his exhibit was the uniqueness of foreigners. Oftentimes, we are simply lumped into either a teaching or military category. I thought it was cool that he was showing the differences in us. :)

After lunch, it was off to our main Gimcheon study spot, Nearby, for some coffee and snacks

For dinner, we met up with our friends, Laura and Lynn, to eat Samgyapsil.

Pedicure time!!! :) We had a relaxing "girl's night" and watched the Hallmark,

"Magic of Ordinary Days" which is one of the best ones ever!

Like father, like son... :) The tech gurus.

The next day we grabbed coffee and waffles, boarded the 3 hour train to Seoul and took them back to the airport. They were flying out early the next morning so we stayed in a hotel on Incheon island, near the airport and said goodbye to them there. We had such an amazing time with them and I really feel like they understand our life here better after seeing our hang out spots, where we grocery shop, what foods we eat, etc. It was a really wonderful time and I'm so glad it worked out for them to come.

After sending them off, we headed back into the heart of Seoul to kill some time while we waited for Jordan and Bethany to get off work. We met them for dinner and coffee and a couple games of "Ticket to Ride" on our Iphones :) It was a ton of fun.

We got to stay in a very nice hotel and it was an awesome little middle of the week vacation! :) We headed back to Gimcheon the next morning to get back into the groove and to prepare for the upcoming Fall semester in a couple of weeks.

So, there you have it. An amazing time spent with people we love. We are so blessed to have wonderful friends that took time to meet and spend time with our parents, and we were so thankful for all the kindness showed by the University. We are surrounded by wonderful friends and family.

About the writer

First and foremost, I am a passionate follower of Christ. I am a wife to a man who spoils me rotten and a mother to a blue-eyed boy who melts my heart everytime he smiles. I am a part-time English professor and a stay at home mom living in Gimcheon, South Korea.